posted at 4:01 pm on October 17, 2012 by Erika Johnsen

Surprise, surprise — it looks like the Justice Department is hoping that maaaaybe we can all just settle our differences and move on from that whole stonewalling, contempt-charge, executive-privilege, deadly Fast-and-Furious debacle, via the NYT:

The Justice Department has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit by the House oversight committee seeking to compel the Obama administration to release more internal records involving the botched gun-trafficking case known as Operation Fast and Furious.

The judiciary should play no role in a dispute like this one between the executive and legislative branches, the department said — one in which the White House has asserted executive privilege over its internal deliberations, and the House of Representatives has voted to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt for refusing to comply with the committee’s demands.

“Disputes of this sort have arisen regularly since the founding,” the department said in a brief filed Monday night in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. “For just as long, these disputes have been resolved between the political branches through a constitutionally grounded system of negotiation, accommodation, and self-help.”

As you might suspect, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) isn’t such a huge fan of that idea, according to a statement issued Tuesday (h/t Doug Mataconis):

WASHINGTON – Today, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa issued the following statement on the Justice Department’s request for dismissal of legal action requiring the production of subpoenaed documents related to Operation Fast and Furious.

“The Obama Administration’s argument should trouble Americans who believe the President and the Federal government are not above the law. In perpetuating a cover-up, through false and misleading statements that even the Justice Department’s own Inspector General found troubling, the Obama administration argued for months that it did not have to meet its legal obligations to a lawfully issued congressional subpoena. Now, the Department is advancing arguments – already rejected by the federal judiciary – that our court system does not have jurisdiction to ensure accountability either. The American people deserve to know the full truth about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and why top justice officials stood behind false denials of reckless conduct.”

It may be true that the judiciary more usually tries to stay out of legislative-executive disputes and let them resolve things amongst themselves, but the Fast and Furious investigation came this far for a reason — the Justice Department’s relentless stonewalling, and President Obama’s invocation of executive privilege, make it desperately apparent that there’s more going on here than the executive branch wants anyone else to know about, be it flagrant top-level incompetence or something much worse. I particularly enjoyed the way Mitt Romney used the Second-Amendment question to bring up Fast & Furious during the debate last night, openly wondering, “For what purpose [Fast and Furious] was put in place, I can’t imagine. … I’d like to understand who it was that did this, what the idea was behind it, what the idea was behind this.” Indeed, Governor. Indeed.

Update: Oops, I had the wrong video clip embedded initially — click the image to watch.

The judiciary should play no role in a dispute like this one between the executive and legislative branches, the department said –the judiciary should confine itself to over-riding the wishes of American voters and their duly elected representatives .

With the way the federal courts have been doing their dandy job, they probably our dismiss this? I hope to goodness Issa and Grassley won’t let this happen if they can help it! bho/holder/big sis should be in court with numerous charges from F&F, IMO!
L

“My fellow Americans, today I signed an executive order abolishing the Federal Court system. It has been corrupted by Imperialist AmeriKKKa. A new Revolutionary Court system has been created and will report directly to me and my new Vice President Morgan Freeman.”

Attention all planets of the Solar Federation. Attention all planets of the Solar Federation. Attention all planets of the Solar Federation … we have assumed control … we have assumed control … we have assumed control.

If there is any justice in the world, Holder and this administration will be held accountable and be forced to answer for the deaths related to those weapons allowed to be sold to straw buyers and ‘walk’ to drug lords and other criminals in Mexico.

If there is any justice in the world, Holder and this administration will be held accountable and be forced to answer for the deaths related to those weapons allowed to be sold to straw buyers and ‘walk’ to drug lords and other criminals in Mexico.

thatsafactjack on October 17, 2012 at 4:26 PM

Actually, if there were any REAL justice, Holder and this administration would have been brought up on charges of TREASON for aiding enemies of our country.

“Cellphone video recorded earlier this year at an operations center of a U.S. defense contractor in Kabul, Afghanistan appears to show key personnel staggeringly drunk or high on narcotics, in what former employees say was a pattern of outrageous behavior that put American lives at risk and went undetected by U.S. military officials who are supposed to oversee such contractors.

The video, provided to ABC News by two former employees, is scheduled to be broadcast in a report this evening on “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” and “Nightline…

The lawsuit by the two former employees was originally filed under seal as part of the False Claims Act, designed to give the government an opportunity to join the legal effort to see if the government was defrauded. In this case, the Department of Justice declined to become part of the fraud lawsuit and apparently did not notify the U.S. Army of the allegations…”

Mr. Obama, you just called me a liar again after my last answer to the question. Seeing as how you have a propensity for finding liars, let’s review this statement of yours on January 21st, 2009, the day after your inauguration, and I quote: ““Let me say it as simply as I can — Transparency and Rule of Law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

So, Mr. Obama, does this transparency and rule of law include such things as Obamacare, Solynda, Fast and Furious, court orders on Gulf drilling, cabinet members actively campaigning, credit card donations from foreign nationals, Libya? Tell me, Mr. Obama, if I’m a liar, what does that make you?

the road to Social Justice is paved with the dead bodies of the politically expendable. think of them as mere ‘bumps in the road’. just like the Rule of Law and the Constitution are mere trifling obstacles to Progress.

I expect Obama to be signing a presidential pardon for Holder to have on hand.

INC on October 17, 2012 at 4:09 PM

Oblamo cannot pardon anyone for something they haven’t yet been convicted of. This is where Holder and so many others are going to be screwed. Should the Romney Administration Attorney General be of a mind to, he or she can go after these criminals with a vengeance.

The last debate is on foreign affairs. If I were Romney I would let it all hang out and implement a “scorched earth” debate. I would attack every blunder: FF, Executive Privilege, Intel leaks, Benghazi,Undeclared war in Libya, Gitmo prisoners now back in battle, reaction to Ft. Hood, remarks to Putin, treatment of Israel,return of the Churchill bust,murders in Mexico with FF guns, etc. I would memorize the bloody body count and the names of Americans killed by Obama’s appeasement policies. I would cite their names and how they died because of Obama’s incompetence. I would take a shot at Clinton and Rice! After the last two debates the gloves can come off due to the tactics of Biden and Obama! Just once before this traitor is kicked to the curb he needs to face the truth head on! America will respond by electing Romney/Ryan by a landslide! Joe Wilson called Obama a liar to his face first and Romney should be the last in the last face-off this traitor will ever have on the national stage!